I first saw this idea on the blog I read almost daily called Daddy Daze. It's a Life Poster and Dave, the blogger dad who's dazed, got the idea from another blog and shared it with the rest of us peoples. I knew right away that I wanted to create one of these bad boys but damn if I didn't have the version of Apple's iPhoto that would allow me to do so.The remedy - I went and bought the latest version of iLife, which also has iWeb (I'm currently working on updating our site) and a bunch of other iStuff* to play with. I rushed home, installed iLife and started the process of selecting the 98 photos needed to create the Life Poster. This is a laborious task and you should drink lots of beer while performing it to ensure the maximum level of fun is reached. Okay, the 98 photos are selected, a Life Poster file is created in iPhoto, I bring up the how-to instructions and set to work configuring the dimensions and creating the .pdf.
Everything appears to be working correctly until it is not. I have added a new custom size poster, efficiently called Life Poster, in Page Setup but that option is unavailable when I select File > Print. I panic, then use logic and reason and Darren to determine that it is because my printer cannot physically handle a job this large and so when my printer is selected, it does not allow the Life Poster option to be selected. Fine. Choosing Any Printer fixes this problem, or so I think. Back to File > Print > Save As PDF. The damn thing is two pages long. I call Apple Support. The guy does a search and leads me to a discussion that is taking place with other people trying to do the same thing and experiencing the same problem. What I find out after I hang up and read through all of the material is that the problem is still unresolved at the end of the discussion thread. I try the other links he offered up as assistance. There is some useful information about adding a virtual printer, which Darr helped me do, but the problem with the .pdf being two pages long remains. I call Apple Support a second time. This guy tells me he doesn't think it's a problem with Apple's product but with my printer. "But I'm using a virtual printer," I tell him. He places me on hold and comes back with the following: "At this time I can direct you to our discussions board." How exactly is this support? I am frustrated and annoyed and say "thank you" in a tone that implies there is no real thanks being meted out and hang up. But the original blog Dave got this idea from makes it all sound so easy and it's Apple so it should be easy. I vow to persevere.
I pack up Marty (my Powerbook G4) and head to the Apple store. They have people there, smart people, people they call Apple experts and I am going to wrangle answers out of one of them if it kills me. I speak with Nathan - he's a Creative (you'll have to go to the store to figure out what that means for yourself). Nathan reminds me of that brainy guy on Criminal Minds but he's slightly older. He quickly becomes just as confused as I am. An hour later, we have transferred my photos to one of their machines because Marty is slightly older and she's taking a gazillion years to complete the simplest of tasks. How do we resolve this issue? We don't. Our solution is to import my photos into Photoshop and complete the build there, which we do. And since I can feel how close we are to the goal of purchasing the Life Poster, I ask if it's just okay to do it there, rather than transfer his work back to Marty and hope she's still spry enough to work. Nathan says "sure" so I sign into my Apple account on their Mac and order my Life Poster from Kodak. This 20"x30" behemoth is expected in 5-7 days. Kudos to my friend Nathan for a job well done. We weren't able to figure out how to get the item to work in iPhoto but we were able to get the item to work. For now, I am appeased. I did, however, write a message to Apple explaining my disgruntled nature and requesting they consider sending me a reimbursement check for the money I spent buying a program that couldn't do what I specifically bought it to do.
*My term, not Apple's.
2 comments:
That's because Mike Matas wrote that article when we were all using iLife 05 rather than 06. Thus you should have gone out to buy the 05 version.
I have made two Life Posters so far and I have stopped making them now that it is slightly more difficult in iPhoto 6 now.
I'm working on a virtual printer file at the moment which should allow me to print borderless 30" x 20" pdfs (and A1 also).
Plus, there's no point in getting angry at Apple. All they did was improve the printer dialog to prevent accidentally printing a photo in a size unsupported by the printer.
I was annoyed at the customer service over the phone and it made me feel slightly less wronged to vent to them about it. The customer service in the store, however, was great. I am still somewhat irritated that I bought a program to do something and now I cannot get it to work. I could have paid an additional $20 for Photoshop Elements and it would have saved me the hassle. And, more importantly, I could make more posters. I am hesitant to try again given my last experience. If you have done the Life Poster in '06 and have suggestions, I would love the help.
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